May 19, 2014

Allure of the Bosphorus

The Turkish Air Force had showcased itself splendidly during
the International Symposium on Air Warfare, held at the AirWarCollege
in Istanbul this April. With over 200
delegates from 60 countries to take care of, Turkish hospitality was at its legendary
best, and it was no wonder that the participants found the event to be an unqualified
success. The hectic days in the huge WarCollege auditorium – one of the
most impressive I have seen – were quite thoughtfully rounded off with a gala
dinner by the Bosphorus waterside.A nippy
drizzle added to the allure of the shimmering waters, as we munched on
appetisers at a swank restaurant next to the FatihSultanMehmetBridge
– commonly called the SecondBridge
– on the Bosphorus. (Interestingly, the restaurant is run by YildizTechnicalUniversity
and the profits are used to administer scholarships to needy students).The meal was a multi-menu, multi-course
affair, low on fats but with enough harm for those with a sweet tooth, as the
Turkish lokum and baklava can be taken in heaps, unabashedly.Chai
– always without milk – served from huge brass samovars by
traditionally-dressed waiters, completed the Ottoman gastronomy fest by the
Bosphorus. All that remained was a cruise down the strait, but we had to wait
till next morning, for the Turkish Air Force had planned a deluxe tour for us.

As I peeped out of my window at daybreak, I saw a huge
pleasure craft anchored by the quayside of our beachfront hotel.Thinking that some visiting Arab sheikhs were
ready to launch off on one of their pleasure jaunts, it took me a while to note
that the cruiser was surrounded by military police and coast guards; the likely
passengers were, hence, none but us!It
was not long before we were ushered on to the triple-decker cruise craft by
smart Turkish Air Force escort officers. The weather was partly cloudy, which
was just as well to keep the reflected sunrays from discomforting us during the
planned three-hour cruise.

The Bosphorus is a 31-km long channel that connects the Black
Sea to the north with Turkey’s
inland Sea of Marmara to the south; the latter is in turn connected to the Mediterranean
through the DardanellesStrait.
The Bosphorus forms the boundary between Europe and Asia,
while also cleaving Istanbul into
European and Asian parts.As we started
the tour, huge tankers could be seen plying through the Bosphorus, which at one
place narrows to a mere 700 metres and involves rather acute turns to
navigate.During winter fog, navigation
through the channel can be extremely risky.The Bosphorus has been notorious for accidents which have included
vessels running aground, collisions with other vessels, spillage of
petrochemicals and even the drowning of a consignment of 21,000 ill-fated sheep
into its waters.Thank goodness, we
didn’t have to be bothered about any mishapas our senses were too overwhelmed by the allure of the scenic
Bosphorus.

Our tour started from Istanbul’s
Sariyer locale towards the Black Sea, in a northerly direction.The population started to thin out beyond
Sariyer and half an hour later, we were at the fringes of the vast Black
Sea that has lately been in the news due to the Crimean crisis.After notching up an ‘I was there’ claim, we
turned around and hugged the western bank, alongside the famous waterfront
properties. Known as yalli, they
belong to the rich and the famous. We were told that the average price of the yalli alongside the Bosphorus runs into
millions of liras, and one of them fetched the fourth highest price ever for a
waterfront villa, anywhere.

On the way south, we went past the FatihSultanMehmetBridge,
in whose vicinity we had dined the previous night. Half a kilometre from the
bridge is the Rumeli Hisari, a fortress built by Sultan Mehmet in 1452, shortly
before his conquest of the Byzantine capital Constantinople
(Istanbul of today).An earlier attempt by his predecessor to
capture the capital had been stymied, due to a blockade of the Bosphorus by the
Byzantine fleet.In the event, the
fortress garrison proved useful in warding off any maritime threat, and Sultan
Mehmet was successful in bringing down the Byzantine Empire
after all. The Rumeli Hisari and the
modern bridge evoked recollections of our Attock Fort and the adjacent bridge
over KabulRiver,
though the similarities did not go much beyond the placid riverine scenery
against a hilly backdrop.

As we approached the BosphorusBridge (or the FirstBridge, as it is commonly known), I
started to look out for the beautiful Grand Mejidiye Mosque at Ortakoy, a
locale quite popular with the tourists. The Neo-Baroque style mosque completed
in 1856, had been under repair for the last several years. During my previous
visit three months earlier, I had heard that it would be inaugurated in April
after renovation was complete. Unfortunately work was still continuing, and
scaffolding obscured what might have been a most mesmerising sight of the
waterfront mosque, that is best viewed from a boat in the Bosphorus.

Sultan Abdul Mejid-I, we are told, was not too pleased to
learn that European palaces were far grander than Topkapi, where previous Ottoman
Sultans had resided for four centuries.Lacking style and luxury, Topkapi was to be abandoned in favour of a new
palace along the Bosphorus. Completed in 1856, the DolmabachePalace was a huge drain on the
Ottoman economy, what with 35 tonnes of gold and the richest furnishings,
carpets and chandeliers lavishing its interior. I had been awed by the interior
of the palace during an earlier visit, but what was left to savour was its
magnificent view from the Bosphorus. This time around, we cruised past the vast
palace, imagining the Sultans and their harem populace cavorting in an earthly
garden of Eden. Alas, the construction of the magnificent palace had
contributed to the weakening of the Ottoman treasury; the opulent lifestyle and
luxury of the court could last a mere 68 years before the Empire disintegrated
in 1924.Today the showpiece of the
decaying Empire is a major tourist attraction both from within, and from the
banks of the Bosphorus.

Still within sight of DolmabachePalace, we felt quite like the
Sultans as our pleasure craft was being outridden by Coast Guards speedboats that
were ensuring a security cordon all around.It was past mid-day and lunch was announced. With a rich and lavish menu to choose from, we
sampled a bit of every offering from the Turkish cuisine. A hearty fill was good fuel topping too, for
we had another four hours to walk through Istanbul’s historic quarters, once
ashore. Our boat zigzagged the final
lap, going past a legendary lighthouse known as the Maiden’s Tower.Sited on an islet, it is purported to have
been an ancient Customs tower later converted into an observation post by Fatih
Sultan Mehmet following the siege of Constantinople. It
was reconstructed after a fire had gutted the older structure. Today it serves
as a lighthouse as well as a popular café, and private boats make regular trips
for an evening soiree.I thought it was
a good idea to disembark there for a cup of coffee, but with no private boat to
wait on me, I joined the rest of the crowd for the trip that remained to be
covered on foot.

The Bosphorus cruise ended at an exclusive pier just next
to TopkapiPalace,
from where we disembarked and walked across for a guided tour of the
palace.After doing Topkapi, we moved on
to Hagia Sofia, the grand Eastern Orthodox cathedral commissioned by the
Byzantine Emperor Justinian and completed in 537. The third ‘must-see’ site was
the nearby Sultan Ahmet Mosque (also known as Blue Mosque) completed in 1616.
We could see the mosque rather briefly, for the caretaker took his time to give
us a historical rundown, along with a takeaway sermon. We learnt of an
interesting snippet, that the five daily calls to prayer are chanted in five
different tonal variants, so as to keep the faithful attracted to the religious
duty. The caretaker claimed that the congregations had grown ever since this
new innovation had been incorporated!

A full day it was, but the trip was most enjoyable as most
of the sites that I had seen earlier from inside, had now been viewed from the
shimmering waters of the Bosphorus. If a traveller has just one day to spare in
Istanbul, a cruise on the
Bosphorus, followed by a visit to the three grand structures in the historical
quarter, is highly recommended for capturing the essence of Istanbul.

1 comment:

Air Commodore Kaiser Tufail has expressed his observations very meticulously he has a command over the English language.He is sharp and uses the words very appropriately.His understanding of history is also worth appreciating Mian Tauseef Ahmad Karachi